The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Petunia plant botanically known as Petunia×hybrida and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Balsunhopi’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Arroyo Grande, Calif. during June 2002. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Petunia cultivars having single-type flowers with unique colors and vigorous, mounded, and trailing growth habit.
The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar was the proprietary Petunia×hybrida breeding selection designated 054-10, not patented, characterized by its striped violet and white-colored flowers, dark green-colored foliage, and mounded, trailing growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar was ‘Kakegawa S57’, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 14,007, characterized by its lavender-colored flowers, medium green-colored foliage, and mounded, spreading growth habit. The new Petunia was discovered and selected by the inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during March 2003 in a controlled environment in Arroyo Grande, Calif.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since March 2003 at Arroyo Grande, Calif. and West Chicago, Ill. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.